University of Texas Press

From Veracruz to Los Angeles: The Reinterpretation of the "Son Jarocho"Author(s): Steven LozaSource: Latin American Music Review / Revista de Música Latinoamericana, Vol. 13, No. 2(Autumn - Winter, 1992), pp. 179-194Published by: University of Texas PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/948082Accessed: 12/02/2010 04:15

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available athttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unlessyou have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and youmay use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained athttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=texas.

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printedpage of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

University of Texas Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to LatinAmerican Music Review / Revista de Música Latinoamericana.

http://www.jstor.org

Steven Loza From Veracruz to Los

Angeles: The Reinterpretation of the SonJarocho

This article consists of two sections. In the

first, I will briefly describe the stylistic development of the son jarocho in

Veracruz, Mexico, emphasizing how elements from various musical tra- ditions were reinterpreted and fused in its formation. In the second, I will

attempt to demonstrate how such processes of stylistic reinterpretation continue in the present day by examining the disparities between two ver- sions of a specific son jarocho as performed in Veracruz and East Los

Angeles. Through a comparison of these two versions, and in particular the

study of the role of the sonjarocho played in the early 1970s Chicano move- ment in the Los Angeles area, I explore some of the general determinants of musical tradition and innovation.

Origins

The son jarocho is a song and dance form originating in Veracruz, Mexico. The genre is a stylistic amalgam of influences derived from the Spanish colonizers of Mexico, from Africans taken to New Spain as slaves, and from the indigenous population of the southeastern region of Mexico. Initial

development of the form occurred during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In earlier Spanish parlance, the term "son" literally meant "a sound which is agreeable to the ear" (Sheehy 1979). In a formal sense, son texts closely resemble poetic forms popular during the early colonial period in Mexico, such as the copla, coplilla, and letrilla. These short verses fre-

quently made reference to bawdy or picaresque subject matter. As early as the sixteenth century, genres such as the copla were criticized by the Catholic clergy in Mexico for being in "bad taste. " The first documentation of the son as a distinct musical and poetic form dates back to 1776 when it

Latin American Music Review, Volume 13, Number 2, Fall/Winter 1992 ?1992 by the University of Texas Press

180 : The Reinterpretation of the Son Jarocho

was officially banned during the Spanish Inquisition, most likely on the

grounds that it was blasphemous or immoral. This was a period, after all, in which the views and practices of the leaders of the Catholic church in all Spanish colonies were strictly enforced.

Towards the end of the eighteenth century, Mexican Indians, blacks, and mestizos came to adopt a number of the musical genres introduced by the Spanish, but modified them to suit the stylistic preferences of their

respective social groups. Sonecitos regionales (regional little sones) developed in this way throughout the country and became very popular. Particularly well-known examples of the son regional include "La bamba," "El besu-

quito," and "La india valerosa." The sonecito still exists today in the form of the son jarocho, as well as the arabe, another song and dance genre.

Sonecitos continued to be sung even with the eventual decline in popu- larity of the Spanish tonadilla; the dances earlier associated with it con- tinued evolving among the mestizo population. Representatives of the

Inquisition officially condemned the performance of regional sones during the eighteenth century, for the dances were viewed as sexually suggestive and the son texts often considered obscene or anticlerical. It is possible that the repression of sexually suggestive or politically oppositional texts led to the widespread use of metaphors and double entendres in the son.

In the aftermath of the Mexican War of Independence (1810-21), a

quest ensued for Mexican identity, especially within the country's mestizo

population. In most cases, mestizos considered themselves neither Indian nor Spanish, and thus sought a means of expressing their newly acquired nationalist sentiment in a distinctly "Mexican" way. It is among the mes-

tizos, even today, that one finds the most intensive cultivation of popular forms such as the jarabe, the romance, and the son. Regional allusions and

patriotic identification with one's hometown, state, and country have long been a prominent element of son texts.

In Mexico today, the term "jarocho" is an adjective used to refer to the Atlantic seaboard of Veracruz, or to someone or something from that area. The Veracruz area probably became associated with this term as a result of the perceived characteristics of its inhabitants. The wordjarocho, still used in parts of Spain, means 'brusk," "out of order," or "somewhat insolent."

Interest in the son jarocho tradition persists strongly in the Veracruz area. Due to overall changes in musical production and dissemination in Vera-

cruz, however, the jarocho style has changed in recent decades. Marketing and commercialization have affected the son jarocho not only in musical terms, but also with respect to the relationship existing between performer and audience. Instead of playing for lodging, food, and other nonmonetary incentives, the jarocho musician now typically demands a cash payment for performances; he or she is also a more versatile musician, adept at musical styles not necessarily associated with the jarocho region. Social

Steven Loza : 181

changes thus clearly correspond to changes in the musical culture of Vera- cruz. The appeal of the son jarocho remains strong among the Mexican

population of the United States as well. A recent rise in the number of

touring folklorico groups (dance troupes) has exposed increasing numbers of Chicanos to jarocho-style dance music.

Instrumental and Structural Form

Typically, the instrumentation of the son jarocho ensemble includes from one to four of the following instruments: arpa veracruzana (Veracruz harp), jarana (a small folk guitar, played with a large plectrum), a requinto jarocho (also a small folk guitar); and sometimes the violin. When only one of these is performed solo, it is usually the jarana because this instrument by itself can provide both the necessary rhythmic and harmonic accompaniment. The most typical son jarocho ensemble consists of the arpa, jarana, and

requinto jarocho, with the violin occasionally replacing the requinto. The most popular of the instruments among veracruzanos are the jarana and the arpa, both of which help define the harmonic form of the genre. Dif- ferent groupings of the conjunto jarocho tend to characterize regional substyles within the Veracruz area.

The musical example that I have chosen for comparative analysis is a standard son jarocho, "El Canelo." The two recorded versions discussed here

represent unique interpretations of the piece taken from two distinctly different centers of Hispanic culture. The Veracruz version, performed by Jose Aguirre Vera (jarana, pregonero), Jose Aguirre '"ha Cha" (harp, coro), and Cirilio Promotor (requinto, coro), was originally a part of the

repertory analyzed by Daniel Sheehy (1979) in his dissertation on the son

jarocho. Sheehy recorded this performance in Tlacotalpan, Veracruz, dur-

ing a live performance. The second version of the same son was recorded in a studio by the Chicano group Los Lobos del Este de Los Angeles (now known as Los Lobos) on their first LP, an independently produced project (New Vista Records, 1977) in Los Angeles, California.

"Canelo" can be roughly translated as "cinnamon." In the context of this song, "El Canelo" is used as the nickname of someone with brown skin. The text consists of a set of versos (verses) and coros (choruses) that contain both nonsensical and humorous subject matter.

Versos

cD6nde vas, Canelo, caramba Where are you going, Canelo Tan de madrugada? So early in the morning? A buscar lechuga, Canelo To look for lettuce, Canelo Pa' la ensalada UAV and JAC]. For the salad.

182 : The Reinterpretation of the Son Jarocho

Y el amigo mono, Canelo Se cayo de un palo [Y en] el aire dijo, Canelo

"Valgeme San Pablo."

Canelo murio, caramba Lo van a enterrar Cuatro zopilotes, Canelo Y una aguila real.

Estribillos

Ya retripa, tripa, retripa Tripa de vena'o Mi mama no quiere, Canelo

Que coma pesca'o Y si acaso fuera, Canelo

Que sea bacalao.

Ya retripa, tripa, retripa Tripa de mapache Mi mama no quiere, Canelo

Que yo me emborrache Y si acaso muera, Canelo

Que sea con tepache.

Ya retripa, tripa, retripa Tripa de cochino Mi mama no quiere, Canelo

Que yo tome vino Y si acaso muera, Canelo

Que sea del refino.

And the monkey friend, Canelo He fell from a branch And in the air he said, Canelo 'Oh St. Paul, find me worthy."

Canelo died, oh no

They're going to bury him Four buzzards, Canelo And a royal eagle.

Tripe, tripe, tripe Deer tripe My mother doesn't want, Canelo Me to eat fish And if I were to, Canelo That it would be codfish.

Tripe, tripe, tripe Raccoon tripe My mother doesn't want, Canelo Me to get drunk And in case I die, Canelo

May it be from drinking tepache.

Tripe, tripe, tripe Pig tripe My mother doesn't want, Canelo Me to drink wine And in case I die, Canelo That it would be in a dignified way.

Sheehy ascribes the following compds (ostinato pattern) to "El Canelo" as performed among informants during his fieldwork in Veracruz:

tl It\ or n n n >> > > >

This rhythmic notation defines the basic nuclear pattern of the compas without providing specific maniqueos (strumming patterns). Sheehy notes that "the most distinguishing aspects of the [son jarocho] compas are its meter, length of the nuclear pattern, and harmonic pattern" (1979:160), which can be represented as follows:

irllr r r rr I IV V7

The nuclear rhythmic pattern performed in Los Lobos' version of "El Canelo" basically adheres to the above compas notation. The jarana, requinto jarocho, and guitar in the Los Lobos version all perform double

Steven Loza : 183

stroke maniqueos on each quarter-note beat of the 3/4 meter, which results in a continuous eighth-note strumming effect. Los Lobos musicians do not

employ the harp in their rendition of this son jarocho, nor do they incor-

porate the harp into any of their other arrangements; instead, guitarron, the mariachi bass instrument, substitutes for the harp. The eighth-note pat- terns performed by the Los Lobos group establish the following compas schematic:

I l /// ?7 I iV Y7

Arrows denote the direction of the maniqueo strokes employed by the Los Lobos musicians, one of approximately seventy-five typical jarocho strum-

ming patterns cited and notated by Sheehy (1979:106-110). An extensive variation of textual structure is frequently associated with

the performance of the son jarocho. As mentioned, the dominant textual models are derived from Iberian literary forms (Sheehy 1979:153). The

stanzas of "El Canelo" are in coplas (couplets), which consist of sets of four- line octosyllabic phrases in which the second and fourth lines rhyme or assonate. In the following example, these lines are marked "B" and "D":

A Do6nde vas, Canelo, caramba B Tan de madrugada? C A buscar lechuga, Canelo D Pa' la ensalada.

Most son jarocho melodies are syllabic rather than melismatic. The

primary concern for the performer is that the second and fourth lines

assonate, and not that the stress patterns of the text exactly conform to those of everyday speech. In actual practice, the number of syllables in

each line may be less than eight; in such cases, an extended syllable or

pause in the text delivery maintains the desired correspondence with the

length of the musical phrase. The lyrical form of the son jarocho does not necessarily imitate verbatim

the classic Spanish copla form either. "Copla" is used by both musicians and non-musicians from the Veracruz area to refer to any of a number of traditional verse forms (except the decima). The copla model in the son

jarocho tradition is used loosely as the basis, but not the ultimate determi-

nant, of improvised expression. The verse structure of "El Canelo" in actual performance adheres to the

following structure; ABAB/CDCD EFEF/GHGH/IJIJ. Each four-line

copla is typically divided and repeated in the following manner:

A D D6nde vas, Canelo, caramba B Tan de madrugada? A , D6nde vas, Canelo, caramba

184 : The Reinterpretation of the Son Jarocho

B Tan de madrugada? C A buscar lechuga, Canelo D Pa' la ensalada C A buscar lechuga, Canelo D Pa' la ensalada.

E Ya retripa, tripa, retripa F Tripa de vena'o E Ya retripa, tripa, retripa F Tripa de vena'o G Mi mama no quiere, Canelo H Que coma pesca'o G Mi mama no quiere, Canelo H Que coma pesca'o I Y si acaso fuera, Canelo J Que sea bacalao I Y si acaso fuera, Canelo J Que sea bacalao.

As most sones jarochos have strophic melodies, Sheehy provides tran-

scriptions outlining the basic melodies of the fifty-six sones that he collected in Veracruz. The strophic melody of the "El Canelo" version documented

by Sheehy is notated in figure 1. In contrast to the Veracruz version transcribed by Sheehy, the strophic melody of Los Lobos' "El Canelo"

represents a different adaptation of the son in terms of rhythm and melodic contour (see figure 2).

North American culture in general and commercial musics seem to have influenced Los Lobos' interpretation of the son jarocho. Both the performers' use of Spanish and their overall vocal inflection reflect an involvement with English, and with African-American musical genres such as R&B and rock. Widely variant levels of proficiency in Spanish among the group's members have necessitated a process of adaptation to and imitation of recorded musics from Mexico, in order to create a homogeneous per- formance style based at least partially on the son jarocho. Even singer Cesar Rosas, who is fluent in Spanish, changed his vocal style in the pro- cess of incorporating music with Spanish lyrics into the Los Lobos repertory.

The decision on the part of Los Lobos musicians not to include the harp in their version of the son jarocho represents a noteworthy break with the Veracruzano performance tradition. Some precedent exists for this deci- sion, however; many mariachi groups, when performing the son jarocho, do not have access to the harp and also tend to interpret jarocho genres without it. Both Los Lobos and other groups have adapted the son jarocho, performing it with what they consider to be "the essentials" of the form's instrumentation: jarana and requinto. The guitarron, as in the case of the mariachi in the early twentieth century, has replaced the harp in these

Figure 1: Strophic Melody (El Canelo) Veracruz Version

a- 6ua

Don- de vas ca- ne- ft ca_- am-ba tan de ma- dru-ga-

I$ r Y IF fT- r-lr T i f I

da? Don- de vas ca- ne lo ca- ram- ba

ri ! ' fu y j I '^ ' j I P -r 'r,. "f7 r Ft i ',~ . r. t ~g,.,.'r r r T r r r

I t '

rI ' "

I i f rLI; _ Ya re - t p- trl pa de re- na'o

LL

Ya re- tri- pa trl- a re- trl- pa trl- pa de

ve- n'o- Mi ma-ma no quie- re ca-ne-lo que

Lo's_. LLobos Vers i'o'n ~tr r- , i co- ma pes-ca'o (y) sia- ca- so fue-ra ca- ne- lo que .

i ,C brr" ,9 P

I ba - h.lao g sa- ca- {

ca-ne- po que sea ba-ca- lao.

6on-de vasCa- ne- o ca- ram-ba por lma- dru ga-da"

Do-d vas- C- - ba or la ma dru- a- da.

I* *S,,,, I , I r .. . ....l

m, or-mar ae- chu ga Ca- ne- lo pa' La en- sa- la- de

I _"( _"' I " '

_; " l

mma-ma no quie re Ca- ne-to que yo me em-bor- ra- che

186 : The Reinterpretation of the Son Jarocho

cases, possibly because of the stronger bass foundation it provides. The transcription below is that of the instrumental, requinto-led introduction to Los Lobos' version of "El Canelo," a section which also serves as the nuclear rhythmic and melodic model of their arrangement.

Figure 3: Introduction El Canelo

Requinto jarocho

J arana & Guitar

(Requinto)

J z legato L i 5 ;

D A D G

- $2&(~ K ( ( / ? ('

*^Sy r- C" ^ r r'

A D G A D G

I , / I C I' / ' r (' /.

, ?' , C f f

Reinterpretation: An Amalgam of Invention and Tradition

In my dissertation (1985) examining the musical life of the Chicano people of Los Angeles, I concluded that Los Lobos' conscious adoption of and stylistic adaptation to Mexican musical genres represented an affirmation of their ethnic origin and identity. The form of nationalism that evolved among mestizos in Mexico during the nineteenth century is not substantially different from the political spirit and awareness among twentieth-century Chicanos, mestizos of a particular sort themselves. Los Lobos musicians and their music epitomize and are a part of the 1970s Chicano movement,

Steven Loza : 187

Figure 3 (continued) (Repeat of opening

ii

D A D G A D G

X r r rr r r rf

VERSE:

D r

as illustrated by their promotion of numerous forms of Hispanic-influenced music, including the son jarocho and their well-known rockabilly-norteiio style.

Musical expression of this sort has played a crucial role in the construc- tion of Chicano identity in Los Angeles, involving the complex appropria- tion of numerous stylistic components. The musical style created by Los Lobos and other Chicano performers from East Los Angeles in the early 1970s can be theorized as a series of interpenetrated layers of ideologically charged sonic elements which were consciously fused to form a particular musical style. The study of style presupposes an awareness of the semiotic content, or significance, of various musical components and the ongoing processes of group definition in society by means of which all members position themselves in relationship to various 'traditions."

In an important sense, "tradition" was the ideal that Los Lobos sought to express through their reinterpretation of Mexican music. A large part of the group's desire to appropriate folkloric jarocho genres into their repertory was based on an urge not only to preserve such music, but to

188 : The Reinterpretation of the Son Jarocho

promote it as a viable art form in an urban and, in many respects, a cul-

turally hostile environment. For a number of years, Los Lobos performed Mexican-derived music almost exclusively, playing at weddings, parties, dances, and numerous college and other institutional affairs. Their musical

preferences, as mentioned, were heavily influenced by the dynamics of the Chicano movement of the early 1970s, in which the valorization of Hispanic culture became a paramount goal. Activists felt that the maintenance of Chicano identity required the active support of and involvement in a

multiplicity of Mexican traditions and the formal, equitable recognition of those traditions.

In an interview I conducted with Los Lobos band members, Louie Perez offered one explanation for the group's initial attraction to the son jarocho, which manifested itself about 1972 after all four members had graduated from high school.

It was a collective kind of experience that we had. We all started to go toward

listening to something that was a lot different. So what happened was that we all went back to our houses, to our mothers' records, looking into all that stuff .... The artistic kind of thing that really turned us on was the music . . . music of our own culture. That's why we pursued it for so many years. (Loza 1985:310-318)

In the same interview, Cesar Rosas stated that his first musical experiences involved listening to the recordings of artists his parents owned. These included Mexican ranchera singers such as Lola Beltran, Amalia Mendoza,

Miguel Aceves Mejia, and a number of well known mariachi performers. Because his mother was from the state ofJalisco, where the mariachi origi- nated, such music assumed a dominant presence in the family household.

We were involved in Mexican music.... I'm just saying that we're just a bunch of Mexicans that grew up in East L.A. It was 1973, and we started

playing Mexican music because we felt that it was a good thing to do. We were the first East L.A. band-a group of East L.A. kids who enhanced this Mexican music because we felt that it was something that was really impor- tant to do at the time . . . important for our peers, important for our culture, important for the community, and to awaken a lot of people and say, Look-it, man, Mexican music is a beautiful thing, and you shouldn't be ashamed of it'. (Loza 1985:317)

Rosas' comments reflect his conceptions of his own identity and help explain the group's decision to develop a more consciously Mexican-in- fluenced musical style and to openly promote it as an oppositional aesthetic model. David Hidalgo, another Los Lobos member, describes further dimensions of this process of aesthetic reappropriation and the importance of audience response to the eventual determination of the group's unique style.

Steven Loza : 189

The thing was . . . after we broke the ice and people decided that they could

accept what we were doing, everybody was longing for what we were doing. Everybody had that need in them that hadn't been fulfilled or something. But we were playing this music that people said, Oh yeah, that's what I grew up with,' and so it started to click. Like the first gig we played in Florence at the American Legion, it was a tamalada and we only knew about five songs, and we kept playing them over and over again. That was the first time that we

played somewhere where there was old folks, there was kids dancing, there was teenagers, everybody was partying together. Before that it was mostly for whatever crowd you were playing for. But we got all these folks up and

everybody was dancing. It was like What is this?' I never had that feeling before. (Loza 1985:318)

This new feeling made the experience important for the group. Conrad Lozano noted, 'We were just doing it [at first] for the fun of it because we wanted to do it; but when we saw the effect . . . we had on the people, we

started getting a little bit more into it and we started developing it" (ibid.). The response of the community thus reinforced Los Lobos' venture and solidified the group's decision to continue with its experiment. A process synthesized from various aesthetic systems had been fashioned in response to specific cultural and ideological needs.

The stylistic eclecticism of Los Lobos musicians, whose repertory in- cludes everything from Latin American genres to Mexican-influenced pop and rock 'n' roll, and who prominently feature Mexican and other folkloric instruments such as guitarr6n, vihuela, jarana, and charango, is not a standard formula for commercial success in the music industry. David

Hidalgo offers the following perspective on this issue.

We were playing the [Mexican] folk music and we believed that it would take us somewhere else. It was always like an art to us. We always felt that it wasn't for the cantina, it wasn't for the bar room. This is beautiful music, this is our culture. We wanted to take it out and we wanted some people to hear it and check it out and enjoy it. (Loza 1985:320)

The idea of reclamation plays an essential role in Los Lobos' reliance

upon Mexican-influenced musical repertoire. In a study that I conducted in 1982 (which became the pilot study for my dissertation research) with four young Chicano musicians in Los Angeles, including one member of Los Lobos, I was given some useful advice by folklorist Alicia Gonzalez, then teaching in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Southern California. Gonzalez suggested that arguably the most significant aspect of the cases examined through my study was the unique social and cultural environment of Los Angeles, and the extent to which it may have contributed to the formation of the syncretic musics associated with Los Lobos and other groups. Chicano musicians in Los Angeles of the 1970s

190 : The Reinterpretation of the Son Jarocho

developed a particular musical style; its creation involved in large part a

process of "reverting" to and revalorizing musical forms marginalized by the U.S. commercial music industry. The prominence of Mexican or "neo-Mexican" musical genres in the repertory of Chicano musicians in Los Angeles after 1970 represents a marked stylistic shift, and suggests a

preference not easily discernible ten years earlier. The factors inducing artists to reaffirm or reinforce previously repressed

aesthetic predispositions are both complex and multidimensional. Within

any marginalized social group, and particularly within those living in urban, multicultural environments, a number of conflicting stylistic in- fluences typically play a role in the development of collective cultural

expression. In East Los Angeles, especially during the apex of the Chicano

movement, resistant artistic production took the form of murals, poetry, theater, and music. The son jarocho as incorporated into this movement was transformed from a regional stylistic marker (associated primarily with Veracruz) into one with an entirely different set of associations and

meanings. I would suggest that the modified son jarocho form and its

performance in Los Angeles became a dominant cognitive metaphor for Los Lobos, referencing the Mexican nation and nationalist sentiment, a

nostalgic yearning for rurality, a particular sense of Chicano "tradition," and a united Chicano resistance in Los Angeles to the cultural hegemony of the United States all at once.

Los Lobos musicians, and many others with similar experiences, do in fact comprehend some of the jarocho lyrics they sing in a manner not so different from that of Veracruzanos. The veiled references and subtleties of the son jarocho texts, however, are probably not understood in the same

way by musicians in Los Angeles as they are by those from the Mexican

gulf coast. Two of the four Los Lobos musicians, for instance, do not speak Spanish fluently. In addition, the text of "El Canelo" is highly colloquial, and anything but transparent for Spanish speakers unfamiliar with jarocho slang.

In terms of the overall aesthetic system linking musicians to their music, however, a number of similarities do exist between the performers of "El Canelo" in Veracruz and those in East Los Angeles. In both of these "worlds" the performance of music manifests a particular life style and world view. One of the principal sentiments associated with musical per- formance in both Veracruz and East Los Angeles is one of regional cultural pride. Examples throughout the world demonstrate that one of the most powerful effects produced from the performance of regional or national music is a sense of solidarity derived from knowledge that it has (ostensibly) originated in the performer's own society (for example, Texas-Mexican conjunto music, Louisiana Cajun styles, Chicago blues, Italian opera, and so on). Son jarocho, wherever it is accepted and performed, is a music with

Steven Loza 191

many nuances of meaning that are shared in such communities by musi- cians and spectators alike.

As noted in the analysis of Los Lobos' version of "El Canelo," both the

linguistic and musical inflections of the group have been affected and

cognitively contoured by exposure to North American commercial musics.

Singing in Spanish was an entirely new experience for many band members. Some learned Spanish in the act of memorizing the jarocho lyrics; others transformed the Veracruz-style Spanish used by regional jarocho musicians into a version of the language with which they felt more comfortable. These transformations affected not only the performance of the son jarocho, but also the manner in which it was heard and evaluated by Chicanos through- out Los Angeles, and eventually consumers around the world. International dissemination of the Los Lobos jarocho style was assured with the release and promotion of La Pistolay El Corazon in 1989, which garnered a Grammy Award and included two sones jaroches, including "El Canelo."

Also noted in previous analysis were the changes made by Los Lobos musicians in traditional son jarocho instrumentation, especially the re-

placement of the harp by the guitarr6n. Although the decision to exclude the harp was intentional, it was not part of the group's original plan. The

major factor in the decision not to include the harp in the ensemble was the

departure of Frank Gonzalez from the group, the only member who could

play the instrument well.

Following the release of La Pistolay El Corazon in 1989, Los Lobos em- barked on a national thirteen-city tour, exposing audiences from Los

Angeles to New York to their version of the son jarocho and other regional Mexican musics. The group performed not at educational or folk art exhi- bits, but rather in large theaters as part of a major commercial venture.

Apparently the group was considered worthy of promotional backing because of the recent release of the sound track to the film La Bamba, re- corded by Los Lobos.' "La Bamba," the film's title track song, held the number one position on U.S. pop music charts for three weeks in 1987, and eventually sold over three million copies, achieving the status of a triple platinum single. The song reached the number one position on pop charts in at least 26 other countries as well.

Los Lobos' blue jeans and blue-collar shirts hardly resemble the white, sun-repelling cotton loin of the mid-century jarocho musician in Veracruz, nor does the urban and intensely multicultural milieu of the Los Angeles area have much in common with Tlacotalpan, Veracruz. Lipsitz (1990) has noted the postmodernist, deconstructive modus operandi of Chicano musicians such as Los Lobos, and suggests that their modes of musical

expression represent a decentered and contradictory form of cultural ex-

pression, yet one which represents well their present-day life experience. One wonders whether the musical preferences of Veracruz musicians today

192 : The Reinterpretation of the Son Jarocho

demonstrate the same sorts of stylistic mixing and contradiction that can be found in the music of Los Lobos, owing to the economic and cultural influences of the United States there.

A Conceptual Configuration

My studies of the musical culture of Chicanos in Los Angeles have em-

phasized the development and maintenance of syncretic musical forms. Herskovits originally defined syncretism as "the tendency to identify those elements in the new culture with similar elements in the old one, enabling the person experiencing the contact to move from one to the other and back

again, with psychological ease" (1945:57-8). Herskovits continues, stating that syncretism can be understood as a form of reinterpretation. He defines

reinterpretation as "a process by which old meanings are ascribed to new elements or new values give old forms a different cultural significance" (Baron 1977:212). As examples of syncretism, Herskovits cites the identifi- cation of saints of the Catholic church with African deities among Afro- Caribbean and Latin American groups. In particular, he describes Afro- Cuban santer'a as a religion fusing the elements of Yoruba beliefs with those of Catholicism.

In assessing such cultural metamorphoses, the notion of collective will can be useful. When confronted with the imposition of dominant cultural

practices, the marginalized segments of a macroculture may develop any number of syncretic cultural practices that function to integrate mutually contradictory ideological spheres. One way in which such integration can and frequently does manifest its presence is through music, visual art, and other expressive modalities. In the case of Los Lobos' reinterpretation of the son jarocho and other musical genres, one might suggest that dissatis- faction with Anglo-American cultural and social institutions in the lives of California Chicanos led to the eventual formulation of a collectively re- sistant aesthetic system. This system can be considered syncretic to the extent that it demonstrates both the cultural and stylistic effects of main- stream musics on Chicano taste, and also the presence of stylistic formula- tions which derive from musics not associated with the North American mainstream. The Chicano movement of the early 1970s, therefore, both "fed into" and was "fed by" cultural enterprises such as those epitomized by Los Lobos. The stronger sense of identity, social power, and cultural

legitimacy achieved in the wake of the Chicano movement among Mexi- can Americans was accomplished in large part through a collective process of musical appropriation and reinterpretation.

It is in the processual interaction of what are commonly referred to as "tradition" and "innovation" that one can perceive the constantly evolving

Steven Loza : 193

dimension of expressive culture. As a tool for the conceptualization of these relationships, I have sketched the rotational graphic below (Fig. 4). It pro- vides, for me, a representation of the whole process of development of a new, or emergent, aesthetic. The effect of this processual complex might be referred to by the term "aesthetic cognition."

Figure 4 Aesthetic Cognition: A Hypothetical Configuration

TRADITION

/~:~wr ON

Conclusion

The history and musical characteristics of the son jarocho in all of its present-day incarnations are richly textured and varied, and merit further research and documentation. Studies by Sheehy (1975, 1979) and others have been indispensable in the construction of the first two portions of my analysis concerning the early history and musical characteristics of the

genre. But it is difficult, and perhaps futile, to attempt to isolate the origins of a form that is now understood to be in a state of constant rein-

terpretation. Through the juxtaposition of two versions of "El Canelo," I have attempted to focus on the reinterpretive and constructed aspects of musical "tradition" in both Veracruz and Los Angeles. I have relied on data and observations based on ten years of fieldwork and documentary research to support various hypotheses about the nature of reinterpretation and innovation. These concepts will hopefully become the subject of further inquiry, as Chicano music in Los Angeles and elsewhere undergoes further stylistic change in the future.

194 : The Reinterpretation of the Son Jarocho

Note

1. Group members also appeared in the film.

References

Baron, Robert 1977 "Syncretism and Ideology: Latin New York Salsa Musicians."

Western Folklore 1(3): 209-225.

Herskovits, Melville J. 1938 Acculturation: The Study of Culture Contact. New York: Augustin. 1945 "Problem, Method and Theory in Afroamerican Studies."

Reprinted in The New World Negro. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, pp. 55-58.

Lipsitz, George 1990 'Cruising Around the Historical Bloc: Postmodernism and

Popular Music in East Los Angeles." In Time Passages. Collective Memory and American Popular Culture, edited by Stanley Aronowitz with Sandra M. Gilbert and George Lipsitz. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Loza, StevenJ. 1982 "Acculturative Patterns in Music Within the Chicano Com-

munity of Los Angeles." Paper presented at the Southern Cali- fornia Chapter Conference, Society for Etnomusicology, March.

1985 'The Musical Life of the Mexican/Chicano People in Los

Angeles, 1945-1985: A Study in Maintenance, Change, and

Adaptation." Ph.D. diss., University of California, Los

Angeles. In press Barrio Rhythm: Mexican American Music in Los Angeles. Cham-

paign, Illinois: University of Illinois Press.

Sheehy, Daniel E. 1975 "Speech Deviations as One of the Determinants of Style in

the Son Jarocho of Veracruz, Mexico." Master's thesis, University of California, Los Angeles.

1979 'The Son Jarocho: The History, Style, and Repertory of a

Changing Musical Tradition." Ph.D. diss., University of

California, Los Angeles. Stevenson, Robert

1952 Music in Mexico. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell.

Valle, Victor 1988 'The Changing Sounds of Mariachi Music." Los Angeles

Times. (March 1) VI:1, 6.